Freesia is a genus of herbaceous perennial flowering plants in the family Iridaceae, first described as a genus in 1866 by Christian Friedrich Ecklon (1886) and named after the German botanist and medical practitioner, Friedrich Freese (1795-1876). It is native to the eastern side of southern Africa, from Kenya south to South Africa, most species being found in Cape Provinces. Species of the former genus Anomatheca are now included in Freesia.

Freesia occidentalis is a South African endemic species found growing in the Northern Cape and Western Cape Provinces from Calvinia to the eastern margins of the Cederberg and Swartruggens mountains to Laingsburg. Synonymously known as Freesia framesii and commonly known as Western Freesia it grows from 9 to 50cm tall. It grows in arid fynbos in stony, mainly sandstone soils or in low shrubland in dry loamy soils along foothills where renosterveld grades into succulent karoo, preferring south-facing slopes. It flowers mid-August to September. Leaves are usually shorter than the flowering spike with the tips more blunt rather than sharp. The fragrant flowers, said to be rosy violet with peppery overtones, are in an inclined or horizontal spike and are creamy white to pale creamy yellow, sometimes flushed mauve or pink.